In the past, closure caps have been employed for collapsible containers utilized for storing extrudible pasty materials such as for example toothpaste, ointments, beauty creams, food product spreads and the like. Such containers usually comprise an extrusion nozzle, having been provided with a screw-on closure cap of solid composition whereby said cap has had to be removed every time it was desired to discharge the contents from the container. Besides being troublesome, this circumstance frequently led to the loss of the closure cap so that in many cases, the container with its contents had to be discarded, or at least, there existed the danger of an undesired extruded portion of the contents taking place by inadvertant compression of the unclosed or uncapped container.
Attempts have been made to overcome this difficulty and problem by providing a closure cap or means for collapsible containers of the kind described which cap may be kept permanently on the container nozzle and yet permit immediate extrusion of the contents. Such prior attempts are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,148,420; 3,506,163 and 2,758,755. Although these prior closure means have been somewhat successful, problems and difficulties often occur which largely stem from the fact that self-sealing of the discharge orifice is unsatisfactory and often times, the extrusion pressure continues after the direct application of pressure to the collapsible tube has been removed so that the contents continues to extrude through the discharge orifice. In other instances, the prior art devices do not adequately cut or sever the extruded portion of the contents from the unextruded position remaining in the tube so that contamination and wastage of contents is encountered.
Therefore, a long standing need has existed to provide a novel closure means for a collapsible container which is an integral part of the container and which will readily dispense the contents thereof in an extruded manner without encountering the above enumerated problems.